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The U.S. Supreme Court Justice has spent more than half a century as an advocate for women’s equality. This collection of her writing spans that luminous career, beginning with a Grade 8 editorial in 1946 praising the charter of the United Nations, and covering a variety of issues and interests with wisdom and clarity. Rest assured, this is no dusty old collection of judicial pontificating. Hartnett and Williams, who edited My Own Words, are collaborating on the authorized biography of Ginsberg.

Notes From a Feminist Killjoy, Erin Wunker

Erin Wunker’s first book is a useful navigational tool even for those steeped in the precepts of women’s studies. Her Notes represents a smorgasbord of reflection: at one point, she defends her “bitchy resting face”; at another, she offers a checklist to discover whether the reader is indeed a feminist. “Feminist killjoy,” incidentally, is a term used by the scholar Sara Ahmed, which Wunker defines as “that irreverent figure who lights a match and joyfully flicks it into the dry hull of patriarchal culture.”

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Blackwave, Michelle Tea

Tea begins her latest entry into “life writing” in San Francisco’s Mission district. The year is 1999, and our central character, Michelle, too often strung out on drugs, drink and a life that is annoying even her, decides to heigh herself off to Los Angeles to write a screenplay. Tea’s voice is smart and cocky, and if you’re looking for an immersive “queer feminist” take on the world this may be it. Tea’s latest dip into autobiographical fiction is published by the Feminist Press at the City University of New York.

Oneill, an Oregon journalist who specializes in “rare-history,” begins our tour of the fetid conditions under which Victorian women suffered by cautioning that “Most of the things you love about the nineteenth century aren’t real, child. They’re the curations of gracious hosts who tidy up the era whenever you visit through art, books, or film.” Yes, we all know that a woman’s lot in earlier times was a difficult one — but with Oneill as guide we get an unvarnished glimpse of its deep nastiness.

Good Girls, Shalta Dicaire Fardin and Sarah Sahagian

Good Girls is the first novel in Inanna Publications’ Young Feminist Series. At the centre of the story are Allie, a high-achieving goody two shoes, and Octavia, a wealthy wild child from Montreal. These two opposites end up as debate-team partners at the elite Anne Bradstreet College in Boston. Together, the girls learn important lessons about living a balanced life. Authors Fardin and Sahagian have both been involved in gender studies, at Queen’s and York respectively, and have a professional interest in women’s cultural issues. Inanna is a Toronto feminist press.

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